Influences of the Heating and Cooling Rates on the Dissolution and Precipitation Behavior of a Nickel-Based Single-Crystal Superalloy

The effects of the heating rate before solution treatment, and the cooling rate after solution treatment on the morphological distribution and evolution of the precipitation phase of nickel-based single crystal superalloy were studied. The dissolution, precipitation, and growth of the precipitation phase and the matrix phase during heat treatment were analyzed by the means of high-power scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the morphology of the precipitated phase has nothing to do with the distribution of the precipitated phase and the heating rate in the heating process, but the cooling rate in the cooling process affects the shape, size, and distribution of the precipitated phase. The faster the cooling rate, the smaller the precipitated phase is, the more irregular the shape is, the smaller the equivalent edge length is, and the smaller the channel width of the matrix phase is.